Long-billed Corella

Description:

Sexes are similar. White with faint yellow under wings and tail. Forehead, lores, band across throat and bases of feathers on head, mantle and upper breast are orange-scarlet. Bare eye-ring skin pale grey-blue. Eye dark brown. Bill long-tapered, bone. Feet and toes are mid-grey.

Habitat:

Open forest, woodland and grassland. These Long-billed Corellas perch in a Eucalyptus Tree and then pick through my friends backyard, Hervey Bay. Often have Spotted Turtle-dove,Crested Pigeon and Little Corella, in same vicinity.

Notes:

Long-billed Corellas have a 'sentinel' warning system, like that of the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. A few birds remain in the trees above, on the lookout for danger, while the rest are feeding. Contact call, two-syllable yodel; shrieks in alarm. Apparently, in the past twenty odd years, these birds have extended their territory -north, east. Some of these colonies may be aviary escapees. Reference;- Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds. Michael Morcombe Field Guide to Australian Birds. Photographs have been edited.